"Unlike at the time of the Falklands war we now have a framework of Select Committees that carry out independent inquiries."—[ Official Report, 31 October 2006; Vol. 451, c. 172.]

True enough, that careful stonewalling was breached within minutes of the end of that debate by the right hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Des Browne), who was Secretary of State for Defence. He went out to St. Stephen's entrance and said:

"When the time is right, of course there will be such an inquiry".

Government sources then said that he had made a "slip of the tongue". However, it was not many months—16 May 2007—before the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman), showing early on in the Labour party's deputy leadership election the skill that she is now employing in the leadership manoeuvring, said:
	"I think that when the troops do finally come home, which we all hope will be as soon as possible, there will need to be an inquiry and I think that we also need to look at the circumstances in which we went in but at the planning and preparation for the aftermath as well, and we will need to learn lessons from that."
	By the time that we returned to the issue on the Floor of the House in June 2007, the ministerial resistance to the idea that an inquiry might be necessary had totally collapsed.